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N.S. man gets 11 years for sex assault, confinement of teen

By Michael TuttonThe Canadian Press

Fri., June 14, 2013

BRIDGEWATER, N.S.—A 16-year-old boy who was chained inside a Nova Scotia cabin where he was repeatedly raped for a week still suffers the physical and emotional wounds from the horror, his mother said Friday as his tormentor was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

David James LeBlanc, 48, sat impassively in court as the mother glared at him while reading from two victim impact statements, one from herself and one on behalf of her son.

David James Leblanc, pictured arriving at court in Dartmouth, N.S. on Nov. 26, was sentenced Friday to 11 years in prison for the kidnapping, forcible confinement and sexual assault of a 16-year-old male. (Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

“You have robbed me of my son . . . and made a hole in my heart,” she said. “You have no idea what it is like to look on the face of my son . . . and see nothing but a shell of his former self.”

Her cheeks reddened as she told Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater how her son can no longer sleep, suffers anxiety attacks and is fearful every time a door closes on him.

The mother said her son’s hand is damaged and his wrists are scarred from being chained to a room that was surrounded by pornographic photos.

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He no longer feels safe at night, and carries mace in fear of another abduction, she said.

“Let my son be the last victim ever,” she said, pleading with the Crown to apply to have LeBlanc declared a dangerous offender.

Reading the victim impact statement from her son, she said, “You have no idea how painful it is to fall asleep while being chained.”

When Judge Richard Coughlan asked LeBlanc if he had anything to say, he replied, “Nothing.”

An agreed statement of facts says LeBlanc offered the boy a painting job and drove him in a van from Halifax to Lunenburg County on the pretext of picking up painting supplies.

Instead, the boy was taken to a bedroom inside a cabin in Upper Chelsea, about 130 kilometres southwest of Halifax, where his clothes were taken and he was repeatedly sexually assaulted, the statement says.

During his captivity, the boy was “secured naked by chains attached to his wrists and ankles and in turn to bolts in both the floor and ceiling of a bedroom.”

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LeBlanc was charged after a 78-year-old woman reported in September that a barefoot teenager wearing only a hooded sweatshirt arrived at her doorstep in Upper Chelsea chained at his wrists and ankles.

LeBlanc pleaded guilty last month to kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats and breach of conditions. He also pleaded guilty to making and distributing child pornography as well as sexual interference in a separate case involving two boys, aged 5 and 2.

Coughlan sentenced him on both matters. LeBlanc was given credit for 258 days he has served in custody prior to his trial, meaning he has about 10 years, 3 1/2 months left on his sentence.

The judge said LeBlanc’s crimes were “horrendous” and he agreed with the joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and defence.

“It’s a negotiated plea,” Crown prosecutor Lloyd Tancock said outside court. “Had there not been a negotiation, I would have been looking for a lot more and (the defence) would have been looking for a lot less.”

Tancock said he is considering applying to have LeBlanc declared a dangerous offender.

Defence lawyer Mike Taylor said in court that his client took responsibility for his actions from the outset and had helped to avoid a lengthy trial by pleading guilty.

He said the plea “is the only real mitigating fact in respect to these charges.”

LeBlanc’s separate crimes involving the younger boys were discovered when images were uploaded to an American pornography website, the statement of facts says.

Investigators tracked 17 images of the boys to LeBlanc’s home in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth. LeBlanc later admitted he took pictures of the young boys during the summer of 2010 near Liverpool, N.S., while they were changing at a beach, the statement of facts says.

LeBlanc was awaiting trial for those crimes when he abducted the teenager last September and held him against his will for seven days, court heard.

He was arrested Sept. 30 in northern Ontario after a Canada-wide manhunt. At the time, police were also searching for 31-year-old Wayne Alan Cunningham, whose body was later found near the area where LeBlanc was arrested. Foul play was not suspected in his death.

A third man, John Leonard MacKean, was charged in November with sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18 in relation to the confinement case.

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